Characteristics of the obstetric population in a Saudi maternity hospital

Mothers who delivered in a large Maternity hospital and who represented a large proportion of the obstetric population in Riyadh are described. The mothers were characterized by a high material standard of living, by adequate energy reserves at confinement, by a low rate of pregnancy complications and preterm birth, and by the absence of smoking and of hard physical work during pregnancy. The mothers were also, however, characterized by pregnancies occurring at the extremes of the reproductive age, by short birth intervals, by short maternal stature, by low educational attainment, by poor utilization of antenatal services and by a high rate of previous infant loss, that is by characteristics previously found to constitute riskfactors for adverse perinatal outcome.